Posted on 08/11/2007 5:48:23 AM PDT by JohnA
The Times is reporting that British teens may have to endure another six-months of practice with instructors and the 'rents before they'll be able to go it alone on UK roads. The proposal would increase the minimum training period to 12 months from six, effectively requiring prospective drivers to wait until they're 18 before they can secure a license.
The move comes after recently released studies show that while crash rates have dropped overall, there has been an increase in novice driver crashes over the same period. The reason for the increase in time is to get new drivers more practice behind the wheel, including during winter months. A similar proposal was floated back in 2001, but was promptly nixed after a case was made that the majority of rural teens need a car to get to and from work.
The program will likely be made public this October, and will also include more stringent enforcement of underage drunk drink-driving laws.
This is not a bad thing. Public transportation is also widely available. You really don’t even need a car.
Equipment safety has measurably improved. Driving hasn’t kept up.
I agree.
The government should take away ALL privately owned automobiles.
Think of the money saved on medical expenses on government health care! - Why you can have even more social programs!
There is nothing in England worth riding to in a dangerous mechanical device anyway. - Plenty of bicycles and donkeys around.
Sleep well, little drones.
I haven’t noticed that 16 year olds are worse drivers. I may be in the minority, but talking on cel phones while driving should be banned here. We all see drivers that are one dimensional. Unable to talk and drive at the same time. I’d wonder how many accidents it causes. I avoid plenty on a nearly daily basis.
I don’t agree with you. There is severe donkey shortage in England. The price of donkeys would sky rocket.
Novice drivers will ALWAYS have the highest accident rates. Change the licensing age to 40, and you will discover that 40-year-old novice drivers get in more accidents.
Public transport isn’t exactly the best for people that live in the country, particularly farmers, course at $9 a gallon in the uk, can’t imagine anyone can afford to drive much at all. Don’t worry, I think those 4000 young people leaving england will have some company in a few years as they quickly realize life is better elsewhere.
So true about the muslims. It doesn’t bother me that they want good drivers.
Public transportation is inefficient because it doesn’t get you to your exact destination. That’s the opportunity cost with public transportation. You’re wasting time.
Is this a license to be able to walk?.... Such disgrace of a nation.
Can you read??
It clearly states in the article that rural teens need to drive to and from work. There’s no public trasit in the boonies!
Besides, who cares what’s needed and what isn’t! Do you think the gov’t should take away everything that we “don’t need”?
Run along, you silly little sheep, lest the sheep dogs nip your heels. Do as your told now, you hear?
There’s alway mopeds. Also, in england they drive funny little three wheeled cars that have tiny little motorcycle like engines. Or at least they used to.
I recall when JFK junior piled it in a hurdle rate for pilots was quoted. Seems in that world that after you have 200 hours, your chances of piling it in diminish significantly. Nothing substitutes for experience. Lately, however, I have seen an article that reports if a new driver has collision avoidance training (not widely available), his/her chances of pulling out of trouble are better.
LOL! good one.
Most drivers will slam on the breaks an slide into another car, when they could have easily driven around it. It comes from a lack of situational awareness. Think of how many people rear-end someone in the right hand lane of a highway, when they could have easily driven out onto the shoulder, or even into the ditch. People also fail to think beyond themselves. When someone slams on their brakes in front of me, I immediately think of the person behind me. More than once I have pulled into another lane and gone by the stopped car, while the car behind me continues on and slams into the car I avoided.
You got it. The accelerator is the Rodney Dangerfield of collision avoidance controls.
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